Topology I

Problem Set 1 H. Reich/F. Levikov

Summer Term 2019 Due: 18.04.2019, 14:00

Problem 1
Let O0 be the usual topology on C. We define two further systems of subsets of
C called O1 and O2 as follows.
(i) A subset U ⊂ C lies in O1 if U = ∅ or if U = C \ F for some finite set F .
(ii) The empty set lies in O2 . A non-empty subset U lies in O2 if U ∈ O0 and
additionally [−1, 1] ⊂ U .
Show that O1 and O2 are topologies on C. For which i, j ∈ {0, 1, 2} is the
identity id : (C, Oi ) → (C, Oj ) a continous map?

Problem 2
Let (X, d) be a metric space and let A be a subset of X, then

d |A×A : A × A → [0, ∞)

is a metric on A. Show that the topology induced from this metric on A coincides
with the subspace topology of A in X. Here of course we equip X with the
topology induced from the metric d.

Problem 3
Beat the record! Let A be a subset of a topological space X. In this exercise we
write a(A) = A for the closure (german: Abschluss) of A in X and k(A) = X \A
for the complement (german: Komplement). Iterating the two processes closure
and complement one produces new subsets out of A like

a ◦ k ◦ a(A) = a(k(a(A))) or a ◦ k(A) = a(k(A)).

Find an example for a subset A ⊂ [0, 1] ⊂ R for which you obtain in this way a
large number of different new subsets. The highest number wins!
Remark: The maximal possible number is finite and bigger than 10!

Problem 4
A topological proof of the fact that there exist infinitely many primes: For x ∈ Z
and n ∈ N \ {0} set
An (x) = {x + ny | y ∈ Z} ⊂ Z.
A subset U ⊂ Z is called open if
for all x ∈ U there exists an n ∈ N \ {0} with An (x) ⊂ U .
Verify:
(i) This definition yields a topology on Z.
(ii) The set An (x) is open and closed.
(Please turn over.)
(iii) Every non-empty open set contains infinitely many elements.
(iv) Let P = {2, 3, 5, . . . } be the set of prime numbers, then
[
Z \ {−1, 1} = Ap (0).
p∈P

(v) Show that the assumption that P is finite leads to a contradiction.